My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were
36 itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an)
37 price of $28, which was popular just then with
38 , but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that
39 of classic elegance（优雅）. John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John
40 the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said,
41 folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a
42 came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce
43 . He became more mannerly and
44 , eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him
45 his behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and
46 what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It
47 be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good
48 not only because he had earned
49 but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly,
50 John’s new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never
51 a person’s clothes for the real person within them. 52 there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for
53 what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to
54 as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape
55 all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.
| 小题1: | | A．turning | B．showing | C．holding | D．hanging |
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| 小题2: | | A．unreasonable | B．expected | C．acceptable | D．unbelievable |
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| 小题3: | | A．adults | B．teenagers | C．women | D．strangers |
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| 小题4: | | A．color | B．style | C．price | D．size |
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| 小题5: | | A．wore | B．carried | C．lent | D．sent |
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| 小题6: | | A．carefully | B．comfortably | C．casually | D．quickly |
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| 小题7: | | A．happiness | B．matter | C．smile | D．change |
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| 小题8: | | A．doubt | B．argument | C．fight | D．war |
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| 小题9: | | A．thoughtful | B．handsome | C．hopeful | D．curious |
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| 小题11: | | A．discovered | B．confirmed | C．concluded | D．wondered |
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| 小题12: | | A．can | B．should | C．will | D．must |
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| 小题13: | | A．present | B．mark | C．word | D．result |
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| 小题15: | | A．taking up | B．looking down to | C．checking up | D．looking up at |
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| 小题16: | | A．trust | B．exchange | C．mistake | D．regard |
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| 小题17: | | A．Though | B．But | C．Since | D．So |
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| 小题18: | | A．matching | B．attaching | C．relating | D．connecting |
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| 小题19: | | A．career | B．life | C．study | D．success |
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